Creative Arts Events

• Saturday, October 21, 2023, 7pm
• Forum, R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center 3-130
• Free and Open to the Public

MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7pm on Friday, October 20, 2023 to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.

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• View the Pre-recorded Poetry Reading
• Poetry Workshop (via Zoom): Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 1 to 1:50 pm
• Free and Open to the Public

Danusha Laméris is a poet and essayist. Her first book, The Moons of August (2014), was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press poetry prize and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Some of her work has been published in: The Best American Poetry, POETRY, The New York Times Magazine, The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and Orion. She was the 2020 recipient of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award and her second book, Bonfire Opera (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pitt Poetry Series), was a finalist for the Paterson Award, and the winner of the 2021 Northern California Book Award in Poetry. As the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California, Laméris co-founded The Hive Poetry Collective: a radio show, podcast, and event hub. She is on the faculty of Pacific University’s Low-Residency MFA program, and along with James Crews, co-leads the online Poetry of Resilience series and HearthFire Writing Community.

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• Live Fiction Reading: 
  Thursday, November 9, 2023, 7pm, Monroe B
• Live Workshop:
  Friday, November 10, 2023, 12 to 12:50 pm, Room 8-200
• Both Events are Free and Open to the Public

Joe Baumann is the author of three collections of short fiction, Sing With Me at the Edge of Paradise, The Plagues, and Hot Lips. His fiction and essays have appeared in Third Coast, Passages North, Phantom Drift, and many others. He possesses a PhD in English from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.  He was a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Fiction.  His debut novel, I Know You’re Out There Somewhere, is forthcoming from Deep Hearts YA.  Visit Joe Baumann's website.

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• Friday, December 1, 2023
• 1 to 1:50 p.m., Building 9, Room 242
• Free and Open to the Public

Rachel Byrd is a poet from Rochester, NY. Graduating with a degree in Creative Writing from MCC, she has gone on to publish her debut book, a collection of poetry, titled The Moon in My Attic. Rachel’s writing explores themes of mental health and growing older — and draws inspiration from nature, memory, and human interaction. She has a love for exploring the world around her and finding meaning in the little things. Ultimately, she hopes that her writing inspires others to unravel the light within existence.

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• Wednesday, February 7, 2024
• 9 to 9:50 a.m., Room and Zoom link to be announced at a later date
• Free and Open to the Public

Rachel Hall is the author of Heirlooms (BkMk Press), which was selected by Marge Piercy for the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize. Winner of the Phillip McMath Post Publication Award, Heirlooms was also the runner-up for the Edward Wallant award. Rachel’s short stories and essays have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies including Bellevue Literary Review, Cimarron Review, and New England Review. She has received honors and awards from Lilith, Glimmer Train, Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ conferences, Ragdale, the Ox-Bow School of the Arts, and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. Hall is a Professor of English in the Creative Writing program at the State University of New York at Geneseo where she holds two Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence—one for teaching and one for her creative work. She is at work on a collection of stories about gun violence.

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• CNF Workshop, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 12 to 12:50 p.m.
• Join the workshop with Ingrid Rojas Contreras via Zoom
• Free and Open to the Public

Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Hailed as “original, politically daring, and passionately written” by Vogue, her first novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree earned the silver medal winner in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, an Indie Next Pick, and a Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection. Her debut memoir The Man Who Could Move Clouds is a National Book Award Finalist in Non-fiction and was named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, People, NPR, Vanity Fair, Boston Globe, among others. Rojas Contreras brings readers into her childhood, where her grandfather, Nono, was a renowned community healer gifted with “the secrets”: powers that included talking to the dead, fortunetelling, treating the sick, and moving the clouds. The Man Who Could Move Clouds interweaves enchanting family lore, Colombian history, and a reckoning with the bounds of reality. Ingrid Rojas Contreras’ essays and short stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Nylon, and Guernica, among others. She has received numerous awards and fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, VONA, Hedgebrook, the Camargo Foundation, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. Rojas Contreras is a Visiting Writer at the University of San Francisco. 

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• Wednesday, April 17, 2024
• 9 to 9:50am, Room and Zoom link to be announced at a later date
• Free and Open to the Public

Rachel McKibbens is a Chicana poet and author of three full-length books of poetry, blud (Copper Canyon, 2017), Into the Dark & Emptying Field (Small Doggies Press, 2013), and Pink Elephant (to be re-released on Button Poetry.) In 2012, McKibbens founded The Pink Door Writing Retreat, an annual retreat held exclusively for non-men writers of color. In 2022, McKibbens was the subject of the podcast We Were Three, from The New York Times and the creators of Serial. She is currently working on a novel.  

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Formed in 2004, The Sixth Act provides co-curricular support for the study of drama across disciplines at MCC. To this end, The Sixth Act (1) develops co-curricular events and materials for MCC faculty and students, especially those who might teach or study plays or playwriting, and (2) provides enrichment opportunities to encourage all MCC faculty, students, and staff to see and talk about plays produced at MCC and in the Rochester area. The Sixth Act seeks as its leaders faculty, staff, and students drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and departments. The Sixth Act is supported by MCC’s Creative Arts Committee and School of Humanities and Social Sciences. For more information see The Sixth Act website or contact Maria Brandt.

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• Thursday, February 29, 2024, 7:00 p.m., Black Box Theater, Reading and Conversation
• Friday, March 1, 2024, 10:00 a.m., Black Box Theater, Playwriting Workshop
• Friday, March 1, 2024, 12:00 p.m., Room 8-200, Playwriting Workshop
• All Events are Free and Open to the Public

Garrett Zuercher (he/him) is a profoundly Deaf theater and film artist and award-winning playwright who holds an MFA from Hunter College, class of 2022. Based in New York City, he serves as the founding artistic director of Deaf Broadway, for which he is currently producing an all-Deaf, all-ASL staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at Lincoln Center in summer of 2023, in which he will also star. Recently, he was awarded a residency commission from The Shed to create an original narrative piece about the lives and work of Deaf artists, which will be produced on the mainstage in the summer of 2024. His most recent short film, “Flirting (With Possibilities),” continues to garner honors at film festivals around the world. Dedicated to bringing authentic Deaf voices to the mainstream, he continues to advocate for awareness and representation within the theatre and film industries. For more, please visit Garrett Zuercher's website.

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• Thursday, May 9, 2024, 7:00 p.m., Black Box Theater
• Free and Open to the Public

This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts will be accepted for consideration beginning in September.

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The Sixth Act will develop curriculum-support materials and events for VaPA’s 2023-2024 season and for theatre productions in the Rochester community in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.

The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.

Finally, The Sixth Act will pilot a special, credit-bearing Honors sequence culminating in student-driven presentations showcased each year during MCC’s Scholars’ Day.

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From the creators of the record-breaking Broadway sensation, The Producers, comes this monster new musical comedy. The comedy genius, Mel Brooks, adapts his legendarily funny film into a brilliant stage creation – Young Frankenstein!

Grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced "Fronk-en-steen") inherits his family's estate in Transylvania. With the help of a hunchbacked sidekick, Igor (pronounced "Eye-gore"), and a leggy lab assistant, Inga (pronounced normally), Frederick finds himself in the mad scientist shoes of his ancestors. "It's alive!" he exclaims as he brings to life a creature to rival his grandfather's. Eventually, of course, the monster escapes and hilarity continuously abounds.

• Friday, November 17th at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, November 18th at 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, November 29th at 2:00 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building - MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-141
• Cost: MCC Students $8.00; MCC Faculty and Staff and Seniors $10.00; General Admission $12.00

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It's a dark and stormy night, and you've been invited to a very unusual dinner party. Each of the guests has an alias, the butler offers a variety of weapons, and the host is, well . . . dead. So whodunnit? Join the iconic oddballs known as Scarlet, Plum, White, Green, Peacock, and Mustard as they race to find the murderer in Boddy Manor before the body count stacks up. Based on the cult classic film and the popular board game, Clue is a madcap comedy that will keep you guessing until the final twist.

• Friday, April 12th at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, April 13th at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, April 14th at 2:00 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building - MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-131
• Cost: MCC Students $8.00; MCC Faculty and Staff and Seniors $10.00; General Admission $12.00

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Everybody loves the international bestseller and award-winning book, The Rainbow Fish, with its wonderful message of friendship and belonging.  This large-cast play features a variety of charming school and sea-creature characters, with plenty of room for unlimited under-the-sea extras!  These “denizens of the deep” admire the famous Rainbow Fish, the most beautiful fish in all the ocean.  But when Rainbow Fish refuses to share his (or her!)  vibrant, shimmering scales (played by separate actors who are an extension of Rainbow Fish), the whole ocean seems to turn against the vain creature.  Unhappy that no one adores him anymore, the Rainbow Fish seeks out the wise Octopus (whose tentacles are also played by separate actors).  Octopus helps the young fish learn that it’s far better to be admired for being kind than for being beautiful. 

• Wednesday, May 22nd at 6:30 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building - MCC Mainstage Theatre 3-141
• Cost:  Free

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• Wednesday, December 6, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building, MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-141

• Wednesday, December 13, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building, MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-141

• Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building, MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-141

• Monday, May 8, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Building, MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-141

• Monday, May 15, 2024. at 7:30 p.m.
• Robin & Tim Wentworth Arts Buliding, MCC Mainstage Theatre 4-141

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• October 5th thru November 3rd, 2023
• Mercer Gallery, Bldg 12-114, North Atrium

• November 9th thru December 15th, 2023
• Opening Reception, Thursday, November 9, 2023, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Mercer Gallery, Building 12-114, North Atrium

• January 25th thru February 16th, 2024
• Opening Reception Thursday, January 25th 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Artist Discussion Thursday, January 25th 4:00 p.m.
• Mercer Gallery, Building 12-114, North Atrium

• February 29th thru March 22nd, 2024
• Opening Reception, Thursday, February 29th, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Artist Discussion, Thursday, February 29th 4:00 p.m.
• Mercer Gallery, Building 12-114, North Atrium

• March 28th thru April 26th, 2024
• Opening Reception, Thursday, March 28, 2024, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Artist Discussion, Thursday, March 28th, 2024, 4:00 p.m.
• Mercer Gallery, Building 12-114, North Atrium

• May 2nd thru May 24th, 2024
• Opening Reception, Thursday, May 2, 2024, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Mercer Gallery, Building 12-114, North Atrium

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